Jamie Ramsey gives you an all-access pass into the world of the Cincinnati Reds

The Filling In Begins!

As you all know, Jamie Ramsey has departed the headquarters of Better Off Red for the next week, intent on enjoying some well-deserved vacation time in a secure, classified location. Jamie, if you’re reading, enjoy your break!

While our intrepid blogger is away, a few of us in the Reds Front Office will be filling in to keep the Better Off Red train charging forward. I’m Jarrod Rollins, and I’ll be providing some info today and at various points throughout the weekend.

Just to give you a quick rundown about me, I work as the managing editor in our creative services department here at the ballpark. Our department produces virtually anything you can think of that’s Reds-related – promotional items for ballpark giveaways, billboards, brochures, signage, newspaper ads, online ads, gameday publications and more. Trust me, that’s a lot of different kinds of projects to provide copy for and proof from day to day. I also spend a lot of time on our online initiatives, working with departments to promote items through our social media outlets, e-newsletters and reds.com.

Okay, enough about me. Let’s get on with some Reds info.

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If you haven’t seen the news on Twitter yet, the future National League Rookie of the Year Mike Leake has joined the Twitter ranks. You can follow him at @MikeLeake44 and see what the right-hander is up to. In one of his posts he claims that if he reaches 100,000 followers and at least half of them are female that Bronson Arroyo will follow suit and join. Bronson told us in a reds.com chat back in June that it was doubtful we’d ever see him on Facebook or Twitter, so perhaps the rookie has used a little arm twisting with the veteran.

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A lot of fans have talked this week about the decision GM Walt Jocketty and his staff will need to make regarding Gary Matthews Jr., but it could be just as interesting once Chris Dickerson is ready to come off the DL. In his fifth rehab game for Triple-A Louisville last night, Dickerson was 2-for-3 with a homer, 2 RBIs and 3 runs scored, putting him 6-for-12 with 6 runs scored so far for the Bats. It certainly seems like the Baseball Ops crew has plenty of talented outfield options, which is a “problem” a lot of teams wouldn’t mind having.

Speaking of Louisville, have you noticed the roll that 2008 No. 1 pick Yonder Alonso has been on lately? He’s batting .386 through 18 games in July, with 4 homers, 13 RBIs and 7 doubles. He even has 4 stolen bases in the month without being caught. It looks like he’s finally back to 100% after the hand injury he suffered last year and showing everyone why he was regarded so highly as a hitter coming out of Miami.

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I’ll be back with more later, but for now, don’t forget that even though the boss is away, it doesn’t mean you can’t still send in your Reds Cap Friday pics. Send them to jrollins@reds.com and I’ll be posting them.

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